Currently out on parole, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was seen “celebrating” by cutting a cake with a sword, reported news agency ANI. The video of the same has gone viral on social media.
The Sirsa-Dera chief who is serving a 20-year jail term for rape and murder, is out on a 40 day parole. He walked from the Sunaria Jail in Haryana’s Rohtak district on Saturday and arrived at his Barnawa Ashram in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat. The video, which appears to be streamed live, one can see people clapping as the Dera chief cuts the cake with a sword while cheerful music plays in the background. After cutting the cake, he ate it himself and bowed to the audience.
ANI reported that in his bail application, Ram Rahim had said that he wants to attend an event to mark the birth anniversary of former dera chief Shah Satnam Singh on January 25. The cake was cut to celebrate the former dera chief’s birth anniversary.
In the purported video that has surfaced on social media, the Dera chief can be heard saying, “Got a chance after five years to celebrate like this so I should cut at least five cakes. This is the first cake.” To put things in perspective, public display of weapons i.e cutting a cake with a sword is prohibited under the Arms Act.
ANI reported that Ram Rahim had on Monday virtually inaugurated a mega cleanliness campaign organised by his sect’s volunteers across multiple locations in Haryana and in some other states. A few senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Haryana, including Rajya Sabha MP Krishan Lal Panwar and former minister Krishan Kumar Bedi also participated in the event.
This is the fourth time in the last 14 months and second time in less than three months that Ram Rahim has been granted parole. Earlier, he was released on parole for 40 days in October 2022 ahead of the Haryana panchayat election and the Adampur Assembly bypoll.
Ram Rahim was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017 for raping two women followers. CBI had registered the case on the orders passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in 2003 and taken over the investigation of the case earlier registered at Police Station Sadar in Kurukshetra.
It was alleged that former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, a resident of village Khanpur Kolian, Kurukshetra was murdered on July 10, 2002, when he was working in his fields at village Khanpur Kolian of District Kurukshetra in Haryana. ANI report says that after a thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet in 2007 against six accused and charges were framed in 2008 while, on October 8, 2021, the court convicted Rahim and four others in connection with Singh’s murder case.